Skittles: they should be proud of their Pride campaign

Thursday, 30 June 2016, by Rosie

What you get when you put a switched-on marketing team and a creative design team together - a beautiful Idea Baby.

Skittles went and did it. They produced their Idea Baby, it was a right cherub and ultimately conveyed a sentimental and visually impressive image.

Black-and-white packets were given out to Pride supporters in London, with an open letter addressed to Pride in London;

“So this is kinda awkward, but we’re just gonna go ahead and address the rainbow-coloured elephant in the room. You have the rainbow … we have the rainbow … and usually that’s just hunky-dory. But this Pride, only one rainbow deserves to be the centre of attention – yours. And we’re not going to be the ones to steal your rainbow thunder, no siree. That’s why this weekend, we’re giving up our rainbow. But don’t worry, we’ll still be there to celebrate every colourful minute with you, we’ll just be completely starkers while we do it. Have a great day, Pride. From Skittles.”

Nice, right?

They made a video too:

Fitting with the overall creative concept, (although one member of our video team did suggest the audio was slightly out of sync at times…) the video works. The whole thing works and should have brand managers everywhere looking ahead, wondering what campaigns they can knock up for significant calendar events.

Top things Skittles achieved (to bear in mind for the future):

- Striking a chord with its audience

- Using the right tone of voice

- Creating visuals that catch, and keep, people’s attention

- Getting the message across as well as the visual

- Multi-platform delivery to reach the eyes of its target audience (including video, social media, engagement at Pride)

Questions we have for the Skittles team:

What do these monochrome Skittles taste like? Still rainbow-like? Stephen thinks they will taste minty.

Can we try some? I (Rosie), think Stephen is wrong.

Was anyone actually starkers on your float?

When can we expect our Skittles delivery to arrive?

Thank you kindly, #colourcurious.

I didn’t write this just because I had a sugar craving I thought Skittles could cure...